The present invention relates to electronic media players, and more particularly to media that is downloadable over a communication network.
The distribution of software such as computer programs to be executed and data to be accessed has traditionally been by means of physical media that is either sold or rented. For example, computer programs are distributed on magnetic disks, and more recently on optical compact disks. Audio works such as musical recordings have been distributed on grooved records, magnetic tape, and compact disks; and movies have been distributed on magnetic tape and video disks of various formats. Often it is desired to restrict operation of the software to authorized users and/or for authorized uses. U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,234 to Edwards, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,038 to Grantz et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,169 to Noguchi, for example, disclose various schemes for restricting copying and use of the software.
More recently, public access communication channels such as the Internet have been developed to the point that distribution of large volumes of software is feasible electronically. However, the protection of the software against unauthorized use and copying is typically awkward, bothersome, and ineffective. U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,423 to Lau discloses a system for downloading and playing music wherein certain copyrighted material may only be used for a specific length of time. The system of Lau includes a service center having a user accessible library of selectable programs, a base unit from which user generated program selections are transmitted to the service center, and a cassette for storing programs downloaded by the base unit from the service center. In one implementation, the date and time of downloading and playing of particular program selections is stored in memory of the base unit and/or the cassette. Copyright information is programmed into a control program of the cassette to limit the usage of each selected program. U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,736 to Walker discloses downloadable information having access through a keyed device.
These systems of the prior art exhibit a number of shortcomings, including one or more of the following:
They are difficult to use in that they require physical delivery of media and/or keys;
They are expensive to manage in that uses must be metered separately for particular works; and
They require undesirable compromises between the number of available works and the cost of obtaining access.
Thus there is a need for an electronic media distribution system that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.